Solidarity, Sophie Daugherty: Labor's Daughter
Theme
She didn't have stage fright, no, she was never shy at any point in her life and she'd spoken before grand auditoriums and fought in small arenas before, but she'd never been in front of quite this many people before.
If she stopped and looked for a moment, it wasn't because of any amount of trepidation, but an appreciation of the vastness that was before her. Now, the whole crowd wasn't in a bad mood, it certainly wasn't as riled up in excitement as it would be for a match, yet she could still feel a great deal of latent energy in the building. She hoped what she had to say would bring the crowd up.
She walked down to the ringside, with a confident swagger, rounding around the ring's. Far side by the announcement table to grab a microphone, before walking towards the nearest set of steel steps leading to the ring. She let the microphone hang down, and let it capture the powerful sound of her stomping down on each step. She did her best to walk as heavily as she could while it still looked natural.
She wanted the crowd to have a sense that something special, a potent source of strength, conviction and inevitability, was making its way to the centre of the ring. She stepped through the ropes, giving some lucky fans a view of the trunk at the root of the powerful legs that carried her nearly 230 pound frame.
Once in the ring, she made her way to its center, before lifting the microphone to her mouth to speak as her theme began to fade out:
"LAW Universe, you don't realise it now and you may not even realise it when I've finished introducing myself, but one day, every last one of you will have realise that you've just seen one of if not the single greatest turning points of all combat sports history and that you, are one of the select few that got to witness it first hand. Many of you will learn to treasure this instant and what it represents above all LAW moments you remember. Above tournaments, above pay per views, above even championships. Some of you might even cherish it among one of the greatest moments in your life, period."
It was a bold claim to open with. But she really believed it to be true, if she had the courage and endurance to make it such.
"Now I understand, that is quite a high bar for me to set, but it is one that I firmly believe in. Not that this event, by itself, will be great standing alone, but because of all other things that will spring forth as a result of my being here and my saying what I am about to say.
I'd go as far to say, the fact that I am here at all, given my openness about what I want to do, the fact I've gotten to sign up with LAW, is evidence in itself that this is special. As I'll tell you right now, management here would not have given me a moment of notice, knowing the trouble I plan to bring, if it were not for the fact that even they recognize whatever what happens with my arrival, it will present some of the greatest entertainment, with plenty of eyes glued to it all, that there ever has been."
It was a clever rethorical trick to give value to what she was about to say. It could just as easily be the case the LAW mangement figured the whole situation was no low risk that it didn't even matter if the reward was small.
"Now what is it that I intend to say and do, you wonder? Well to set the groundwork for that, it is best that I tell you who I am and where I came from. I am Sophia Daughtery, from the United States of America and the state of West Virginia, ring name Solidarity, alias, the Union's Daughter. Why am I the Union's Daughter? Well, I won't overwhelm you all with a history lesson, but suffice to say that a little over a century ago, thousands of exploited West Virginia coal miners, among them my ancestors, stood up to violent efforts to crush their attempts to improve their station. They took up arms and fought back, many killed and were killed, but even after they were defeated and arrested, their cause was so clearly just that most were released, others were acquitted and of those few who were convicted all were pardoned within four years."
It was a pretty interesting story in of its self, but she was exactly here to give a history lecture. Sophie jad so far avoided losing the crowd and she wanted to avoid that entirely.
"While by no means were their goals completely accomplished, it solidified a commitment in my family to unions and the power of worker solidarity, not only in that industry, but all industries. Yes, all industries, which is where I and us come in. See, in our world, to this day, the overwhelming number of workers don't get the fair treatment that they provide. Poor conditions, wages and opportunities, abound in workplaces the world over. I am sure nearly all of you have felt this one way or another in all your lives. Well, while I won't go about making comparisons, I can say those of us in the combat sports industry have it particularly bad."
Again, she was risking going ouy in the weeds too much, but Solidarity had managed to bring things back arpund to what the crowd was. Here for by the end.
"Every time we step on or in a cage, ring or mat, it is with the understanding that it might be the last time we do. When we face off against our opponent, we are rewarded for seriously hurting our opponents. Even in the more 'refined' events, like Taekwondo, or Judo. A knockout, as in, giving someone's brain such a severe shock that it turns off for a moment, is an automatic win. Now, of course, you come here to see and enjoy that devastation. I don't begrudge you for it all. I'd be lying if I said that I haven't always enjoyed putting a girl's lights out with my own hands, or experiencing the satisfaction knowing I'm personally responsible for taking someone out of competition for a while."
Sophie threw in some spice in the end implying she took pride in injuring her opponents, but as extreme as it sounded, it wasn't that out of the bounds of the normal. No matter how well intentioned a fighter, nearly all liked scoring a knockout win. Yet by definition, doing so mean't causing at least a minor injury to one of the most delicate parts of the human body. Deliberately twisting someone's ankle looked meaner, but potential complications from doing so were far less severe.
"But that competitive drama should not be tarnished, for the fighters, or the fans but, the fact that a career ending, or even sidetracking, injury, could mean impoverishment from a loss of income. Even if I hate someone so much that I want to take this sport away from them, I want them fed and healthy enough for their mind to linger on what I did to them, not on their concerns about where their next meal comes from. Yet that is the common thread that weaves combat sports together, a lack of security if something goes really wrong. Why? Well, ultimately, it is due to the imbalance between the power of the workers and the owners, as it nearly always is. Why pay pensions to people you don't have to, who are going to force us to, they say. Well, going from this point forward, there's an answer to that. I will."
That last line was the first to get some actual pop from the crowd which was something to be proud of, at least.
"Now how will I do it, wrll this is where things get fun. You see, in most fields, no one person, or even a small group of people, can engage in the type of action required to force a company's hand. You need, ultimately, a critical mass of workers, that can threaten to withdraw their labor, to force a company to compromise, in other words, they need to be able to strike and carry through with one as long as necessary. Luckily for you, the fans and for us, the workers, there is a way for us in LAW to force change, that keeps our pay flowing and gives you all a product to watch. To understand what that is, we need to go over one simple fact: All LAW wrestlers might be equal, but some are more equal than the others."
Sure, Sophie finished with a cliche, but it was helpfil in getting the point across. It'd also be the last time she'd be explaining some nuanced bit about labor relations.
"Among our numbers, there are a select few wrestlers, nice, mean and everything in between, that get the most merchandise sales, the most high profile matches and the championship reigns. They owe this to management that consistently coddles them, promotes them and gives them every opportunity for success, while the rest of us come and go as their fodder. I've looked at LAW long enough from the outside in to observe this pattern and I am sure you all, if you haven't put it together for yourself, know that too."
Now, Sophie had identified a target and therefire, naturally, made some enemies right off the bat, across alignment lines as well. Though it did maje the crowd's ambient nose a little louder. She'd the start pacing as she got into her next section.
"However, you see, for all their advantages, these women fight in the same rings the rest of us do, walk the same hallways the rest of us do, train in the same gyms as the rest of us do and use the same parking lots the rest of us do. Their skin also bruises like the rest of us, they scream in pain like the rest of us, they bleed like the rest of us and their bones break like the rest of us. What I mean to say, is, these women might get advantages that most of us don't, but push comes to shove, when it's time to fight, whatever the venue may be, they have no special exemption from combat and its consequences."
Here, sophie used repetition to build tension and fervor. It was absolutely working withe the crowd, as cheers got louder and louder with each time. It got so loud infact that a sustained cheer came out with her conclusion, leading Solidarity to put one hand out quiet down the crowd. Now thst she'd built uoer their energy, they were feeding hers. She stopped in the middle of the ring sgain, then put up one hand under her chin whike cocking her head slightly to the side as if contemplating something.
"So then, the thought came to me, hmm, management has certainly invested a lot in the success of these people, yet paradoxically, they can only protect them so much without undermining what allows them to sell as well as they do in the first place. So how about I make it my mission to put pressure on LAW management. by doing everything in my power to make life for those in this elite crowd of insiders, a living hell. Every match I have, I strive to leave a mark on them, physical, psychological and emotional, even at the expense of victory. If I can't get matches with them, well, you know how things go on behind the scenes at LAW. In both cases, too, if I can't get to them, there are always those around them to go after and there are those who might be interested in this cause that I can work with to reach places I can't. I intended to pursue this with utmost dedication and make this fire burn as widely and wildly as I possibly can."
Now that she'd put her plot out into the open, she could explain how she expected this work to accomplish her goals. She'd start with how she expected this all to go done, why she expected to get away with it without sanction or suspension, then move on to how it'd all succeed. At this point, the crowd was getting a good deal into it all.
"See, through all of this conflict, between the haves and the have nots, those inside and those on the outside, there comes a point where the haves will try, desperately to cower, hide and seek protection. It is most of what they know to do, after all. Yet in the midst of all this, I can assure you that as the drama rises, LAW management will only grow less and less protective of them, as the conflict surpasses the fan engagement the insiders had previously provided for themselves. However there will come a moment where LAW recognizes that we must be given what we want, lest things spiral out of control. From that point forward, these new, better LAW, will be well positioned not only to be a better version of what it currently is, but serve to drain talent from all other combat sports and squeeze them out."
With that Sophie explained her aim was not only to change LAW, but through LAW, affect all combat sports. It was incredibly amvitpus to say the least. Even if her goal was never accomplished in full, to move toward it to any significant degree was sure to land her a place in combat sports history.
"So what are the demands? Well I've already given one, pensions for our wrestlers, certainly, but there's more than that which I have an issue with. We need to level the playing field when it comes to the opportunities our wrestlers get, so it isn't the same old wrestlers with the same old championships, with the same agents headlining every event, getting and holding these championships. Some of these champions get to hide from real and consistent competition for months at a time, because of favorable booking."
With that she knew she'd stepped on a nerve, which was a good thing, because for the rest of her speech, all she would do is stomp on that same nerve over and over again, with ever harsher vitriol with every intent of of riling up the crowd as much as a speech like this possibly could.
"It is incredibly demoralising to the fans, disrespectful to our wrestlers and terrible for the product. Who wants to put their body on the line night in and night out, knowing that they'll never get the chance to even imagine sitting on the mountain top? They know they aren't connected to the same agents that have been stinking up this place for years, so they know they will never have a real shot. Title reigns truly mean something when they are held through adversity and come to a timely end as a result of having to stand up to successively inhuman, for at least it meant they were clung onto through adversity."
Sophie continued her condemnation, there would be no breaks on Solidarity's train. She laced every preceding and following word with venom.
"I'll say what I know what others are thinking, even if they dare not say it. At a certain point, the longer the reign of a champion, the less respect I have for them and everyone associates with them. You are what is wrong with LAW, you are the burden that suffocates it. Nobody really respects you and nobody should respect you. That title you hold, is nothing but a symbol of a decrepit combination of favouritism and cowardice. You might be pulling in merchandise cash from casuals, but the money you make is not a result of hardworking spirit, but of craven parasitism."
Sophie purely and truly meant every single word that she said, on an almost metaphysical level. She loathed what she was attacking in LAW, hence dedicating her career to fighting this battle from the very start.
"The longer a title is held, the more the odds should be stacked against champions and the more devastating their eventual demise should be. For things to be booked otherwise is nothing but anti-climax. The higher they climb, the harder they should fall. There should be no dignified dismounts for these people. Nor should these falls mean that the championship should simply move into the hands of some wrestler whose agents have been with LAW forever and just so happen to be connected to other wrestlers who have already won. That's no improvement, nor will I or others be shut up by the notion that it is anything but a complete and utter sham in of itself."
With that, Sophie would immediately dismiss the notion that anything short of the rise of new blood, from backstage to frontstage, was acceptable.
"If anything, it's just a reification of the same pathetic clique that's been maintained here for years. You don't need to have been signed with LAW to notice this, anyone who isn't a fool can connect the dots with just a little observation. My heart goes out to those who've been stuck as an outsider looking in, doing their best to give fans something the fossilised core is increasingly incapable of providing. It's time enough that the periphery of the LAW universe comes together to crush the core."
With that, the main body of Solidarity's speech was complete, soon enough it would be time to conclude.
"Those are the two core demands of this uprising I'm starting, of the outsiders and have-nots, against the insiders and haves. I'd like to believe I am not the only one willing to partake in this struggle and I have plenty of reason to believe I am not. But you see, there is another thing I want to say, that isn't so much a demand as it is an observation. I can not help but notice how many of our wrestlers, a disproportionate numer, come from money and aristocratic lines.
Sophie could think of plenty such people. One parricularly annoying girl on twitter came to mind.
"Sure, some swear that they've totally turned their back on their families, though apparently not on their trust funds, but it is just so common. I suppose it makes sense. These types are the least to worry about needing a stable income and also have a knack for recognizing an ossified nest of intertwined privilege when they seem one. Which is why I suppose it is fitting they get more and more insufferable as time goes on…"
